“Never What You Imagined”
Easter Sunday, April 17, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream
Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister, preaching
This year is one when Passover and Easter land in the same stretch of time and Spring also is claiming the stage. Holding these stories, the rituals of remembering, one thing that strikes me is the fullness of this moment in all the stories of the season. How in them all it is a time of loss and hope, both. How in it all there is this vital readiness that is asked of us, and a reminder that what lies ahead is almost always in the big stories, nothing like what we had imagined.
Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister; Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister; Sam King, Worship Associate; Bell Choir led by Reiko Oda Lane, Organist; Laurel Sprigg, Soprano; UUSF Choir led by Mark Sumner, Music Director
Shulee Ong, Camera; Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Joe Chapot, Live Chat Moderator; Remigio Flood, Sexton; Kelvin Jones, Sexton; Amy Kelly, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher; Ralph Fenn, Les James, Tom Brookshire, Zoom Coffee Hour
If “the unexamined life is not worth living,” how does Eastertime encourage us to examine ourselves – to roll away the stones on our hearts – and examine what lies within?
The Rev. Jami Yandle (they/them/theirs) is a non-binary Board Certified Chaplain and will be serving ... read more.
The Spiritual Practice of Showing Up: From trans rights to reproductive justice, voting rights to the environment, this is a crucial time in Texans’ fight for justice and UU values in the world. The Rev. Erin Walter, musician, dance teacher, and new Executive Director of ... read more.
"An Especially Big and Important Music Service"
Sunday, April 10, Worship Service Livestream
This Sunday, April 10th - after a 25-month delay - and in a follow up to our tribute to Walt Whitman in early December, several choirs return in larger numbers to perform the Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams. In addition to having the UC Alumni Chorus join our church choir, we welcome students from the UC Men’s and Women's Chorales at Berkeley as well as a 45 piece orchestra. The pieces are enhanced exponentially with orchestral forces.
These combined choirs seek to honor the souls lost and displaced by the Ukraine invasion with their music. Dona Nobis Pacem was composed in response to the unsettling state of the world in 1936— Vaughan Williams compelled to cry out for peace featuring traditional texts as well as dramatic poetry by none other than Walt Whitman.
Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister; “Wonder Dave” Crady, Worship Associate; Reiko Oda Lane, Organist; Nancy Munn, soprano; Rene Minneboo, baritone; Orchestra and Choirs led by Mark Sumner, Music Director
Eric Shackelford, Camera; Donald Shearer, Camera; Jonathan Silk, Sound & Final Mixes; Joe Chapot, Live Chat Moderator; Remigio Flood, Sexton; Athena Papadakos, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher; Ralph Fenn, Les James, Tom Brookshire, Zoom Coffee Hour
I'm just wondering if I'd be an odd one out in a UU congregation
My beliefs fluctuate between polytheism and panentheism
Do any of you have any resources for individuals sexually abused by religious professionals? I have been searching for a support group and can’t find one.
"Word After A Word After A Word Is Power"
Sunday, April 3, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream
Poetry has the ability to awaken the mind with a single word or to give a gulp of water to the heart one didn’t know was thirsty. It can boldly tell undeniable truths to ourselves, and to Kings and Queens. It can make a crowd stir as well as call a profound silence in a filled auditorium. It is simple and complex, like each living being. Poetry is the language of Faithful Fools. Carmen Barsody and poets from the Tenderloin Community will lead us in a fool- hearted, poetic service in celebration of poetry month and their high holy month as Faithful Fools. (https://www.faithfulfools.org/)
Carmen Barsody, Sermonizer; Ed Bowers, Sermonizer; Kim Diamond, Sermonizer; Cheryl Shanks, Sermonizer; Joel Yates, Sermonizer; Poindexter (aka Dennis Adams), Worship Associate; Andrés Vera, Cellist; Matthew Linaman, Cellist; Ben Rudiak-Gould, Songleader; Jon Silk, Drummer; Mark Sumner, Pianist
Eric Shackelford, Camera; Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Joe Chapot, Live Chat Moderator; Lee Jones, Sexton; Kelvin Jones, Sexton; Amy Kelly, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher; Ralph Fenn, Les James, Tom Brookshire, Zoom Coffee Hour
How does one deal when struggling with the principles, most specifically the first two?
I'm finding it hard to find worth and dignity in certain people...
I'm finding it hard to deal with certain people compassionately...
These certain people mean me and people close to me harm. I've got friends that are LGBTQ+ and I will defend them and their rights, using violence if necessary.
That doesn't sound too UU to me.
What do you do when you're confronted with certain people that go so far against your beliefs that you find it hard to feel any sort of worth in them?
Hello Everyone, I hope to start participating more often here. Part of why I want to be here is to share my monthly newsletter, The Sweet Potato, a roundup of UU young adult ministries. The April 2022 edition just came out. Anyone is welcome to read and sign up to get it, as we especially encourage older adults to share this resource with UU young adults in their lives. Thank you for reading.
Also this newsletter is part of the work of the Young Adult Revival Network - uuyarn.org